A Cal State Fullerton survey has concluded that the erection of high barriers along freeway medians is the best way to reduce the escalating numbers of accidents involving undocumented immigrant pedestrians along Interstate 5 in northern San Diego County.

A Cal State Fullerton survey has concluded that the erection of high barriers along freeway medians is the best way to reduce the escalating numbers of accidents involving undocumented immigrant pedestrians along Interstate 5 in northern San Diego County.

A bill that would provide a $3-million loan for installing emergency call boxes along freeways in San Diego County has been approved by the state Senate. Under the bill by Sen. Bill Craven (R-Oceanside), money for the roadside telephones would be raised through a $1 temporary surcharge on vehicle registration fees. The bill now goes before Gov. George Deukmejian for his signature.

San Diego is the kind of place where a 4,000-acre planned community springs out of the ground seemingly overnight, so it's not surprising to learn that a new freeway-oriented technology corridor is emerging to challenge the one along Interstate 5. Research and development construction along Interstate 15 is making the corridor a major competitor of the more mature Interstate 5 strip to the west, according to Ken Satterlee and Mike Conerty of John Burnham & Co., San Diego.

Starting Sunday, the maximum speed limit on about 2,800 miles of freeway in California--including the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways in Orange County--will be increased to 65 mph from 55 mph, it was learned Monday. Another 1,400 miles are candidates for 70 mph, beginning in January.

About seven years ago, a man jumped into the ocean with his clothes and cowboy boots on to rescue two young girls who were being swept out to sea on their body boards by a riptide. "The kids were washed back in with the surf, but the young man drowned," recalled Denny Stoufer, lifeguard supervisor at Carlsbad State Beach, where the accident occurred. It was during the off-season, in autumn, and lifeguard service had been reduced to patrols of the 13-mile stretch, Stoufer said.

State officials on Monday significantly increased the amount of bond money they plan to allocate this year for road projects, including carpool lanes for the heavily congested 405 Freeway though Westwood and the Sepulveda Pass. The staff of the California Transportation Commission recommended that $4.5 billion in bond funds be earmarked for dozens of projects statewide instead of the $2.8 billion proposed Feb. 16.

As more and more unauthorized immigrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border, the toll of undocumented pedestrians struck by vehicles and killed on the freeways of San Diego County continues to mount. This past weekend, authorities say, three more people believed to have been undocumented immigrants were killed along Interstate 5. In recent years, border-area freeways have become deathtraps for undocumented people who attempt to negotiate the busy roads on foot.

In a decision that could have a profound effect on development throughout much of Southern California, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday proposed adding the California gnatcatcher to the nation's endangered species list.